Valentino Rossi

In 2007, he was suspected of tax evasion for which he paid 35 million euros to the Italian tax authorities to arrive at a settlement.

He is a fan of the Italian football club Internazionale, who congratulated him in October 2009, on his ninth World Championship win, through their website.

Valentino is the son of Graziano Rossi, who was also a motorcycle racer once. As a child, he was given a kart instead of a bike, because his mother was worried about her son’s safety.

When he was five, his kart’s 60cc motor was replaced with a 100cc motor for more speed and in 1990 he won the local kart championship.

By the end of 1991, he had become an expert in minibike riding and had also won many awards.

He participated in the national kart championships held at Parma and came fifth in the race. In 1993, his father took the help of his former racing friends, one of whom was Claudio Lusuardi, who operated the Cagiva Sport Production team, to provide his son with a Cagiva Mito 125cc motorcycle.

He crashed his first bike, despite which he was allowed to take part in the Italian Sport Production Championship, where he performed reasonably in the beginning, but later won the title in 1994.

After winning the championship, he was trained to ride 125cc racing motor bikes and in 1995, he won the Italian 125cc Championship. He also raced in the 125cc European Championship where he claimed the third position.

His next move was big and ambitious i.e. he participated in the World Championship in 1996 in the Malaysian Grand Prix, where he finished 9th.

However, he won the 1997 125cc World Championship held in Aprilia, to become the youngest rider ever to claim the championship.

In 1998, he took up 250cc racing and came second in the World Championship which was won by Loris Capirossi.

He won the 250cc World Championship held in 1999 in Aprilia, where he had won his first world championship title.

In 2005, Grand Prix motorcycle racing season, he won his 7th World Championship and fifth consecutive MotoGP Championship. That year he earned a place among the only five riders in the history of motorcycle racing to win premier-class title five times.

As of 2013 he has won an grand total of 106 races, 80 of which are 500cc/MotoGP championships.